Shaft sealing devices are commonly used to protect the integrity of the bearing environments in various types of rotating equipment. Many of these sealing devices, however, can quickly wear out and fail. After such failure, contaminants, such as, for example, moisture, oftentimes migrate into the bearing lubrication reservoir (i.e., the isolated side of the sealing device) resulting in damage to the rotating equipment.
Methods are currently used in industry to detect moisture/contaminants on the isolated side of a seal, which notifies a user that the seal integrity has been lost or otherwise compromised. For example when using a mechanical seal to separate an oil filled bearing assembly of a submersible pump from ingress of the pumped media (i.e., water), a sensor is placed in the oil. The detection of moisture in the oil triggers an alarm. For grease filled assemblies, positioning a sensor in the grease oftentimes fails to detect the presence of contaminates. Furthermore, it is common for clean grease to cover the sensing device during initial operation, thereby preventing contaminates from contacting and thus triggering the sensor. Even if the sensors are triggered when the lubricating media is contaminated, the negative effects and damage on the bearings or other components on the isolated side of the seal are likely to have already occurred.